What made the early seasons of Spongebob so good?
>>83748080
Clever jokes.
It's the same, it's just now they're trying to force the humor, and the characters are out of character. The humor is also kind of different, and the characters interact with each other differently.
>>83748117
>It's the same
>but completely different
>>83748080
The characters were actually consistent and the jokes were genuinely funny
>>83748117
No, patrick is an asshole, spongebob is annoying, sandy cares to much about science, Mr krabs is obessed with money and even though he loved money before atleast he some what cared about his workers
>>83748117
>It's the same except it's totally different
k
>>83748177
Flanderization.
Always the downfall of any long running show.
Spongebob used to embody the essence of what being young was, being fun. Now he's everything about kids people hate, being a little turd and hanging out with equally as annoying friends.
>>83748080
Good writing and clear direction, with a hint of nostalgia.
We'd like to think that there's some way to restore that, but these things are almost entirely random.
Even if we did, I don't think anyone would notice or care at this point.
>>83748080
Isn't this screencap from the movie?
Tibbitt was a better and much funnier writer pre-movie. And even then, he was supported by great storyboard artists. More importantly, the show was always grounded in stories that were easy to relate to.
Non-Tibbit episodes pre-movie were masterfully animated and creative as hell with visuals. And even then, they had sharp, smart writing to make sure things didn't get too wacky.
Really, Spongebob had balance.
In the first sense, it was balanced by TWO approaches to writing: storyboard-driven writing with, say, Greenblatt and Springer and then script-driven writing with Tibbitt and others.
In the second sense, it was balanced by various approaches to comedy: visual gags, puns, cleverness, absurdity, plain ol' dumb humor, etc. And these came at high speeds, always with great variety, to give the show a wacky feel.
In the third sense, it was balanced by its ability to relate to the audience: so many episodes pre-movie deal with situations that are, if not directly relateable, then relateable to the most obvious comparable thing. And, importantly, this balances out with the absurdity of the show's premise along with the various approaches to humor.
In all, there was no laziness. There was no feeling of "aw heck, it's just a dumb kids show, who cares if the animation isn't interesting? they're not gonna know the difference." And obviously, the same can be said for the jokes.
>>83748609
In the first sense, it was balanced by TWO approaches to writing: storyboard-driven writing with, say, Greenblatt and Springer and then script-driven writing with Tibbitt and others.
I thought is was that for season 1 and most of season 2 (and most of springer and greenblatt's season 3 episodes, except for Krusty Krab training video) The storyboard director was the main boarder and the storyboard artist was subordinate but still got some board driven writing input, while starting with season 3 (along with Dohrn and Tibbit's season 2 episodes) the board directors do the first storyboard and the storyboard aritsts are basically glorified storyboard revisionists
granted post 2nd movie spongebob is Script driven now instead of board driven
Spongebob always sucked
>>83748326
No.
>>83748080
>the jokes were funnier, and when taken out of context they got way funnier
>the look of the cell style animation was, imo a lot better, the color palette was more aesthetically pleasing
>the characters were their own classic versions but over time morphed into annoying caricatures of themselves as the writers changed, which is a huge problem among long running animated series is that characters eventually change into a watered down tropes of what they used to be, typically losing dimensionality
>Tom Kenny's voice got way more irritating as time went on
>when you were young, you used to question why squidward was such a dick, but then you grow up and you realize what its like to have annoying neighbors, work at a dead end job for years on end and watch your dreams dissolve and you empathize more and more with him. squidward, from the back of the show tells a very relatable tale, but over the years it has been abstracted and the show began to lose that capacity
>spongebob was always an idiot but not a braindead retard. every character became really dumb for the sake of slapstick and the comedy suffered accordingly.
>>83748080
I think A factor (probably not THE main factor) was too much Spumco:
In the beginning, the people who worked on spongebob who were also directly connected to Spumco were Sherm Cohen, Vincent Waller and Chris Mitchell (board artists for spongebob, involved with both Ren and Stimpy along with the post-R&S era spumco), and Aaron Springer and Erik Wiese (who weren't involved with R&S but did work during the flash shorts/bjork music video/Yogi bear era).
Cohen (who initially had Springer as his subordinate boarder, with Vincent Waller replacing Springer once springer became a board director himself in late season 1) would become Storyboard Supervisor from season 2-Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI (he would return post-2nd movie), Erik Wiese boarded on some of Dohrn and Tibbit's season 2 episodes (and thus not have writing input) and then leaving to work on Samurai Jack, Vincent Waller would leave to be involved with The Oblongs and Adult Party Cartoon, Chris Mitchell would return to Dexter's Lab and boarded for Samurai Jack, and Aaron Springer was a prominent Board Director for season 2 and the first half of season 3 and the movie (he too was involved with Samurai Jack)
In season 4 a good chunk of the crew (including the outline writers) left to work at Camp Lazlo. Meanwhile, Vincent Waller was named Creative Director, Erik Wiese was a boarder for most of season 4, Chris Mitchell return to board for season 4 and early season 5, Aaron Springer boarded from seasons 5-8, Robertryan Cory (layout artist for Adult Party Cartoon, actually a great artist) became a character designer (he had no writing input), and Richard Pursel (writer for both incarnations of Ren & Stimpy along with Cow and Chicken) was an outline writer for seasons 5-7
>>83749552
Squidward is only more likable now because the new writers don't at all get his dynamic with Spongebob.
Originally, you knew you were supposed to root against Squidward because all of his supposed misery was self inflicted, yet he had a victim complex.
He would whine and moan about how Spongebob is so annoying and ruins everything, yet he always goes out of his way to antagonize Spongebob, who was usually fine with leaving Squid to his own devices, then would bitch and blame Spongebob once things went south as a result. This is usually what set off the plot and Squidward would get his comeuppance for pissing in Spongebob's cornflakes.
Club Spongebob is a great example, everything that happens is entirely Squidward's fault, yet he still acts like HE'S the victim here. If he didn't literally shove his nose in Spongebob's business, none of it would have even happened.
Now in the newest episodes, it's Spongebob going after and antagonizing Squidward for no reason, and we're still expected to root for Spongebob because Squidward gets angry about it instead of taking it in stride. Squidward often doesn't even do anything beyond just yell and get angry anymore, so his punishments seem less deserved now than they did when he was deliberately trying to fuck with Spongebob.
>>83750172
BINGO.
>>83748080
>Pacing.
Characters had time to breathe, and the humor could sink in rather than barraging you with joke after joke. Now it's just cram everything in, don't put spaces between character dialogue, the moment one is finished, the other can start talking, gotta shorten the run time for more commercials!
>No Squidward torture porn
Even in the early episodes even the most painful of Squidward punishments were either bloodless or happened off screen.
>One shots
So many characters that are introduced then tossed away like they never existed. Even the old Spongebob episodes were guilty of this, but they also had pacing to make it work. Nowadays, you get Hardass Mcco-fun show up to get his butt kicked by Spongebob, and then the episode ends.
